United States of America and South Korea are allied countries. But it's a different story when it comes to technology, especially smartphone and tablet market. The greatest rival companies, nowadays, is between the Cupertino-based tech-giant Apple and the Korean-based tech company Samsung.
The two tech-giants are not battling in smartphone market only; they are also up head-to-head in terms of tablet making. So here is a comparison of the two latest tablets from Apple and Samsung.
iPad Air 2 was announced recently along side with iPad mini 3. Galaxy Tab S 10.5, on the other hand, is the improved version of the previous Samsung tablet that has smaller screen size. The new tablets are both extremely thin at 170x240x6.1 mm and 177mmx247x6.6 mm. Tab S is just a bit bigger, 3 percent longer and 4 percent wider, compared to Air 2. Because of this, Apple stayed true to the brand name, as iPad Air 2 is lighter at 465 grams versus Tab S at 437 grams.
Display wise, Galaxy Tab S is 10 percent bigger compared to iPad Air 2 at 10.5-inch versus 9.7-inch. Samsung is also superior in terms of screen resolution at 2560x1600 and 288 ppi while Apple has 2048x1536 and 264 ppi. It is a bit close fight in terms of the screen quality as the Korea-based company used Super AMOLED display that provides more accurate color hues. The Cupertino-based company meanwhile, used IPD LCD screen that provides good quality display as well. While both tablets have fingerprint scanners, iPad air has quicker response with its Touch ID that can also be used for Apple Pay.
In terms of software, Samsung Galaxy Tab S is equipped with faster cores and clock speed, 32-bit octa core Exynos 5 Octa clocked at 1.9GHz + 1.3 GHZ, compared to Apple's A8X 64-bit tri-core clocked at 1.5GHz.but according to a Geekbench test, Apple has a bit smoother performace. On the other hand, 3GB RAM of Tab S is a bit superior to 2GB RAM of iPad Air 2.
Meanwhile, the two tablets have the same storage capacity because Air 2 has up to 128 GB internal memory variant while Tab S' 32 GB internal memory can be upgraded up to 128GB as well through micro SD slot. It is also a close fight in terms of the tablets' camera. Both have 8MP rear snapper but Samsung has better 2.1MP front cam compared to Apple's 1.2MP.
Galaxy Tab S, equipped with Android Kitkat 4.4, is a bit superior in terms of its 7900mAh compared to iPad Air 2's, powered by iOS 8, 7340 mAh power source. On the other hand, Apple's latest tablet is built of a better material, aluminum, while Samsung's is still built with plastic; although Tab S provides better grip with its dimpled back. Air 2 also has more color options: space gray, gold and silver, compared to bronze and white variants of the latest tab from Samsung.
The two top caliber gadgets cost $499 while Apple iPad Air 2 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S LTE version cost $130 more.
